LSU guard Carlos Stewart enters NCAA transfer portal
After a year hampered with injuries at LSU, veteran guard Carlos Stewart has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Stewart came to LSU ahead of the 2023-24 season from Santa Clara in the WCC where he was a potent scorer, but in his one year at LSU, Stewart appeared in just 13 games and averaged 4.7 points per game.
A Baton Rouge native, Stewart suffered a lower body injury that kept him out nearly the entire conference season, with his last game action coming against Texas A&M on Jan. 6. In the 13 games he was active for, Stewart had nine starts, playing 19.5 minutes per game and shooting 32.8 percent from the field with one assist and 2.2 rebounds per game.
Stewart was a highly-touted transfer acquisition for McMahon’s program entering year two, as Stewart was the No. 26 player in the portal after a successful sophomore campaign at Santa Clara, averaging 15.2 points on 44.1 percent shooting from the field and 40.3 percent from behind the arc. Unfortunately, those efficiency numbers did not translate to LSU before his season was cut short.
As a 6-foot-1 guard with one year remaining, barring a medical redshirt, Stewart will look for one more stop to show off his scoring ability.
LSU and the transfer portal
The Transfer Portal opened on March 18th, 2024 for men’s basketball. That was the day after Selection Sunday and it will be open for 45 days from that point. However, many coaches were frustrated with the timing that the portal opened because it conflicted with postseason tournaments, forcing coaches to evaluate their rosters and available players while prepping for key games.
Another result of that timing is that players on teams who made tournaments likely weren’t going to be able to enter the Transfer Portal until after their season ended.
At LSU, there have now been two players to enter the transfer portal with Mwani Wilkinson and Carlos Stewart, and one player who has entered his name in the NBA Draft in Jalen Cook. The Tigers are losing four more seniors in Will Baker, Trae Hannibal, Jordan Wright, and Hunter Dean, meaning there’s more work for McMahon to do to fill out his roster for the coming season.
So far, LSU has added Cam Carter, a transfer guard from Kansas State and has an impressive trio of freshmen set to come on campus in the summer.
